On the move!

Ansel's been crawling the past couple of weeks and is getting faster each day. He still seems to prefer being up on his feet and is also a pretty good cruiser, "walking" from one chair or piece of furniture to another. Of course this mobility comes with risks, as you can probably see the bruise under his eye in this crawling picture :( He's also been sick with a cold, surprisingly the first time he's been sick after his bout with the flu way back in the NICU days.

He's still right at 17 lbs, one month later... probably due to the constant activity this past month! The holidays were fun; we got to spend time with both sides of the family, and even spent some time visiting my sister Stacey and her family in Tulsa. Definitely a change from last year! This week has been crazy weather wise. With the ice storm, we were lucky and only lost power for 5-7 hours or so. Springfield got hit much harder, with cable lines and trees down all over the place! My parents place has been out of electricity for over 3 days now, and due to the massive power outage will possibly even be out the rest of the week. We drove over today to take some more stuff to them, (Mom has to stay for work) but we brought my Grandma back with us. They were pretty positive about the situation and luckily have a fireplace downstairs atleast, but it was COLD and I'll be very happy for them when they get their power back!!!

Twinkle, Twinkle, little star, how I wonder how tasty you are!

Christmas morning... time to empty stockings!

Aunt Rachel helps me open presents!

Slot machines can apparently be addicting at any age!

Eden, who now lives in Arizona, even made it for Christmas!

Ha ha... found the chocolate stash!!!

Merry Christmas!!

Merry Christmas everyone!!! We hope you all have a wonderful time where ever you are! We know some aren't able to spend Christmas with family this year, but we hope you will feel the peace this season brings and remember the wonderful memories of past Christmas's shared with loved ones. To Amanda (in Iraq), we love you and are proud of the service you are giving to our country! We are grateful for all of our wonderful family and friends and hope everyone has a wonderful Christmas and a Happy New Year!

No, No, NO!!!

This week Ansel has started shaking his head, "no". Well, the Dr.'s office called today to say we had to come back in because the last lead testing didn't work right. We got into the room, and Ansel was smiling away at the nurse; then he got a very serious and worried look on his face. (It was the same nurse who gave him his vaccines (5 different shots!) last week.) I think the situation was becoming a little familiar! When the nurse started putting on her gloves, Ansel, looking even more concerned, began shaking his head (as if saying, "no, no, no") and began crying before he even got stuck. It was sad and cute at the same time. Usually he isn't phased at all by finger or toe pricks, but seven shots in one day can leave their mark! (he also had RSV shots on his vaccine day) Anyway, his fun new discoveries this past month have been getting into sitting postion, pulling up and cruising a little, and his new "no" head shake.

My Birthday Party!

After graduation, we had Ansel's birthday party. It was lots of fun, and great to get together with our friends and family. Ansel didn't mind the chocolate cake either (although with all of the frosting, I'm not really sure that he got down to the cake part! )


No more pictures please!




Here's what the bigger cake looked like. (The theme was animals)
Ansel's cousins: Jewell, Kaley, and Kelsey!
Checking out some of my presents!


Cousin Lindsey and I playing again! Yep, we can both stand up and play now!
It was also gingerbread house weekend... a very anticipated tradition each year!

Daddy graduated!!!

Cody graduated on Saturday!!! (His major was Spanish) We were so proud of him!


Ansel found some more strings!














I realized after the last post that the picture I
was thinking of wasn't actually posted early on... so here's Ansel's first picture with his puppy!

One year old!

It's actually been a year already!! We took Ansel to get his pictures taken today, so here's a link where you can view them..



https://www.searsphotos.com/?shareid=S204957754lNT32BY43PG


We gave him a little carrot cupcake for today...which he LOVED. (We're having his party on Saturday.)
Part of the perks of turning one year is more vaccines, which he has tomorrow, plus his next synagis (RSV) shot is also tomorrow.. not a birthday present to get excited about! At one year he weighs right at 17lbs, and is 26.5 inches long.















We had to leave really early the other morning ...he looked so cute all cuddled up. He's such a good night sleeper.. we got lucky on that one!




So ... the spoon feeding thing is going much better (haha)



Got this thing figured out!


You guys have been holding out on me.... how come this is the first time I've had carrot cake?






I'm busting out!






Me and my milestone marker
(In very early posts this puppy looked huge next to him!)

Thanksgiving weekend

It's always fun getting to spend time with grandparents , aunts, uncles, and cousins!




Me and Aunt Rachel... this cucumber feels great on my new teeth!



Grandpa's beard feels neat





Cuddling with my cousins






Ansel likes playing with necklaces people are wearing... Karina wasn't too thrilled about that!





Who ever came up with these videos knew what they were doing!






Fascinated by a golf ball



Grown up shopping cart rider